Madewell Is Made Well, But Why Bother?

The clothes almost seem to be an afterthought in the Madewell store at Broadway and Broome in Soho (which is apparently also called "Madewell 1937," although the "1937" part is nowhere to be found in the store, as far as I can tell). The store is literally jammed full of stuff that is supposed to evoke a certain lifestyle, I suppose. One of repose and leisure, where people drink lemonade and lie about in hammocks. Or maybe it's meant to evoke the year 1937. But the latter doesn't really make sense because many Americans were still crawling out from under the Great Depression and the New Deal was in full swing. But alas, I digress...

Amongst all these carefully curated props and paraphernalia are, apparently, what J. Crew considers to be clothing for a younger crowd, though if you didn't know any better, you would probably think you had just stepped into some sort of alterna-J.Crew store anyway.

All the usual trappings are there: cropped skinny jeans in Crayola-box colors (yay! boo!); row upon row of "basic" tees and tanks for $24.50 and $16.50, respectively (yawn - how many of these can a person have?); colorful displays (a wall of scarves covered the entire spectrum of visible light, I believe); mannequins grouped together as if they might come alive and play a game of cricket (just look left and see what I mean); a multiplicity of sales associates dressed almost identically and - for the most part - too busy recounting last night's party to ask you if you need anything; oh, and, chic little dressing rooms in the middle of the store with nothing but flimsy cotton curtains separating you and the shopping public. Is it so bad to have doors on dressing rooms anymore? Apparently Gen-Y likes the possibility of the curtain flying open at any moment.

And as you can tell from the picture, the clothes aren't very interesting or different from anything you'd find at J. Crew, Hollister (Abercrombie & Fitch's li'l cousin), and - on the lower end - even American Eagle (which is just a couple blocks north on Broadway). I kept asking myself, Why does this store exist? Who needs these clothes? What's unique about Madewell?

And the answer I came up with was that no one really needs Madewell clothes, just like no one really needs J. Crew. These stores serve as safe places to shop for those who are less adventuresome with their sartorial choices. It's one-stop retail: underwear, outerwear, casual, work (although to a lesser extent at Madewell, which is mostly weekend wear), and even shoes. But the shoes are cute here, and much better made and less expensive than their J. Crew counterparts. My friend nearly purchased the sandals at right, which were all leather and priced at $95. They even look like something Prada did a few seasons back. Why they're in front of a log, though, I'm not sure.

Well, gee, what to do with Madewell. My recommendation: go on a Saturday night. Like all good Soho retailers, they've incorporated music into their store, in the form of a DJ Booth. Yep, a DJ Booth. It's all white and modern looking and choc-a-bloc with vintage vinyl and apparently a DJ spins on Saturday nights only. So even if the clothes don't do anything for you, you'll get to shop to some funky tunes.

I really like that DJ booth. Are the records for sale? They're probably the only thing I'd buy...



Pssst! My review of A.P.C. Surplus and a final recap of NYC is coming on Thursday. Stay tuned!

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